


on the ocean, we're different people

by katfisching



Category: The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, just kind of a total rewrite, more or less
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 08:43:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21012959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katfisching/pseuds/katfisching
Summary: Conrad joins his sister, Julia, along with brothers Alex and Brad, for a diving expedition that unearths coordinates to what looks like treasure. The group realize they aren't the only ones after that information when their captain betrays them, bringing pirates on board. Even worse, an abandoned warship finds them before the coast guard can.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a rewrite of the entire game, basically. I thought the story could go in a different direction and so I wrote it. 
> 
> The archive warnings didn't seem to fit, exactly, so here are my own. It's really the same content as the game: hostage situation with mild torture, and scares later on.

Conrad boarded the Duke of Milan with his last bit of cargo; a cooler of beer. He had already brought on his other luggage and set it in one of the small bedrooms below deck.

His sister, Julia, had already dropped her stuff off and went to pick up the other two people joining them for vacation. Conrad had met one of them a few times and had never met the other. Despite how unappealing the idea of spending days on a boat with people he barely knew was, Julia had enticed Conrad with the idea of a vacation on the ocean.

Diving had been a sibling bonding activity between them since forever but they hadn’t gone for the last handful of years. In part because, recently, Conrad had wanted the kind of entertainment Julia wasn’t interested in—mainly, partying and sleeping around. But Julia was more than happy making her own fun. Diving had apparently gotten dull; her recent adrenaline rush came from increasingly riskier rock-climbing excursions.

Julia returned just as Conrad set the cooler down.

Conrad noticed the bit of Julia’s stomach exposed beneath her knotted shirt. Rock-climbing—and a fad diet or three—had chiseled some abs where there hadn’t been any before. Conrad took a beer out of the cooler. Inadequacy wasn’t going to stop him from enjoying the liquid carbs. 

“Connie!” Julia greeted him with one of her wide, bright smiles as she boarded the boat.

“Hey, there,” he responded as they hugged. When they separated, he looked at the man standing behind her. “Nice to see you again,” Conrad said to him.

As much as Julia derided Conrad for whoring around, she relationship-hopped like the best of them. Her current beau was the tall, muscular Alex. They had met rock-climbing. He was going to medical school.

“Definitely. What’s going on with you?” Alex asked as he set down his bags. “Anything new?”

“Oh, you know, same as always,” Conrad answered, eager to make the admission sound carefree rather than pathetic.

Conrad had barely scraped out a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and had definitely not shown a knack for business, and so was out of the running for taking over his mother’s position in her company. When Conrad was with Julia, who was more than happy just spending their family’s money and not asking how they got it or making any of her own, his position in life didn’t bother him. But next to Alex, who had spoken at length about car payments, student loans, and his future helping people, Conrad felt lacking.

“This is Brad, my brother,” Alex said, gesturing to a skinny guy in a polo shirt and glasses who had come to stand awkwardly beside him.

Conrad cheered up immediately because he decided he was definitely going to suck Brad’s dick. Nerdy guys he could easily fluster was up there on the list of his types.

Brad stepped forward. “Hey,” he said to Conrad.

Conrad smiled as he shook Brad’s hand. “Nice to meet you.” He hoped his loud floral button-down shirt was gay enough to say: ‘I’m interested in sucking your dick.’

“Yeah, you, too,” Brad said, not quite managing to meet Conrad’s eyes.

“This is nice,” Julia spoke up. She said to Conrad and Brad, “I’m glad you both could make it. It’s like a real family thing.”

Conrad glanced at Alex. _A family thing_. Anyone who didn’t know Julia would think this meant commitment. It didn’t. Julia liked relationships and being in them just as much as she liked starting new ones. And though she frequently talked about how exciting a wedding would be, Conrad knew she wasn’t eager to settle down. He had the suspicion Julia viewed dating like a best friend but on fast forward. Dating provided a reasonable excuse for quickly getting to the emotional intimacy stage of companionship. It didn’t help that Conrad knew Julia didn’t have other close friends. She had a group of girl friends who supported her emotionally after a breakup and a boyfriend to support her emotionally any other time. And then she had Conrad, for when no one else would do. 

“You want a beer?” Conrad asked Brad after he and Alex had finished loading their luggage below deck.

“Yeah,” Brad said, after some hesitation. “I love beer.”

Conrad nodded, amused at the awkwardness, and a little enamored already. He went over to the cooler and fished out a bottle to hand to Brad. He still had his own.

“Bradical,” Conrad said; a fun nickname he decided to try out and regretted instantly. “Ever do any diving before?”

Brad hesitated again. Conrad wondered if he was considering lying.

“Never,” Brad admitted finally.

“_Nice_. A water virgin. We’re going to pop your cherry.” Conrad smiled reassuringly, making sure to add, “We’ll be gentle.”

He realized he should have gone about that a little slower, but there he was.

Brad, however, seemed to be taking it well, responding with a shy but not uncomfortable laugh.

Conrad was prouder of himself than he had any right to be.

“So, um,” Brad responded. “You’ve been diving before?”

Conrad tried to hide a playful grin. “More than a few times. I’m here for the action, not just to look pretty.”

“So you know what you’re doing?”

Conrad wrapped his fingers around the untouched beer bottle Brad had been clutching to his chest and brought it pointedly up to the other man’s lips.

Conrad withdrew his hand and Brad obediently took a sip of beer. Conrad could have died on the spot but managed to hold his composure.

“Just follow my lead and you’ll know what you’re doing in no time,” Conrad said.

Before Brad could respond, another woman boarded the ship, walking with more purpose than Conrad had ever seen in a person. It was intimating and Conrad was into it.

She had brown skin and full lips, and her hair was pulled up in a ponytail. She was only slightly taller than short for a woman, thin but with defined muscles very visible beneath her tank top and the smallest pair of shorts Conrad had ever seen.

Brad was going to have to be disappointed. Conrad had a different goal now.

Julia beamed at the woman. “Everyone, this is Fliss. She’s our captain.”

“I’d tell you all to make yourselves at home, but…” Fliss looked at the cooler and crates of beer.

She had what Conrad learned was the local accent of the part of French Polynesia they were staying in. It was the American in him, but he was a sucker for accents.

Fliss walked past them into the cabin of the ship, to the wheel and control panel, and turned the ship on.

Conrad followed her, a step or so behind. “Um, if you’re selling, I’m buying.”

Fliss gunned the ship forward so suddenly it sent Conrad clinging to the doorway.

He didn’t quite know what they did to upset their captain but he hoped he could improve her mood quickly or else the next few days would be miserable.

They made it to their coordinates by early evening, leaving them daylight for diving if they were quick. Julia and Alex were interested in diving an alleged American military plane wreck that Brad had apparently located. That wasn’t something Conrad and Julia had done before, instead opting for exploring natural dive sights. But he supposed it made sense for Julia to have to make everything more exciting. He just wished Julia had told him about the plan before he was stuck in the middle of the ocean.

It seemed like she hadn’t told their captain the plan, either.

“Technically,” Fliss said as Alex and Julia geared up, already in their wetsuits. “We should call this in to the port authorities. That’s protocol for undiscovered wrecks.”

Julia rolled her eyes. “_Technically._”

Alex glanced at Julia, taking a cue. “What’s the harm in us diving it once before we call it in?”

“I mean,” Julia insisted, “the whole point was that Brad was the first to find this. So we’d be the first to see it.”

Fliss frowned. “Are you sure you don’t want to do this the right way?”

Brad didn’t say anything from where he sat setting up a tablet and a dive camera.

Conrad stepped next to Fliss. “It’s a military wreck. No one will lose anything integral if we swim around it once or twice before calling it in. What are any authorities going to learn from a wreck like this? Americans flew over here around World War Two. No surprise.”

“Just don’t touch anything,” Fliss said, sounding a little bit like she hoped they would drown.

“I can’t wait to be the first ones down there,” Julia gushed. “It’s all undisturbed. It’ll be amazing.”

Alex and Julia dived, and Brad watched the camera feed on the tablet.

As eager as Conrad was to dive, he was uninterested in the plane. He decided to wait it out until Julia was over the wreck and they could just dive aimlessly for the fun of it, like they used to.

In the meantime, he had Fliss to try and get to know.

Conrad walked into the cabin, two beers in hand.

“Howdy, Captain,” he said to Fliss. “Fancy a pint with your second in command?”

“You,” she said, with a disparaging emphasis that sent a thrill through Conrad, “are not my second in command.”

“Third in command?” he countered.

“No.”

“Fresh and eager cabin boy?”

“Still a no.”

“Your well-paying, dashingly handsome, sea-faring client who is requesting the pleasure of your company.”

Maybe Conrad was just being hopeful, but it looked like she suppressed a smile.

“I’d hate for that to go to waste,” she said after a moment.

Conrad smiled and handed her the open bottle.

“Though, maybe it wouldn’t, from what I’ve seen of you,” she said, and took a sip of beer.

“What can I say?” Conrad said. “I like a good time.”

“I never said I don’t like having a good time,” Fliss said. “But some people have a different idea of what a good time is. Some people think if you pay enough, you get to break the rules, or are entitled to talk to me.” She held the bottle up.

Conrad had the good grace to look appropriately chastised.

“Well, if I can make it up to you--”

Fliss looked unamused.

“That wasn’t a come-on,” Conrad was quick to inform her. “I realize we could get you in trouble with not calling in the wreck.”

“You pushed for it, too, don’t forget.”

“No, I absolutely did.” He wasn’t going to deny it. As much as he felt a twinge of resentment for Julia’s habit of pushing limits, he had to admit he always enabled it. And it wasn’t like he hadn’t used his name and money to skirt the rules—or jail time—before.

Conrad continued, “If anything bad comes of this, I promise I will let everyone know you had nothing to do with it.”

Fliss shook her head. “Just like a rich American to think damage control is the same as making good choices.”

Conrad was starting to think he preferred conversations with Brad; at least then Conrad could control the topic.

“Damage control is better than no assurances at all right now,” Conrad said, trying not to sound petulant.

“You’re not doing a good job selling yourself if all you have to offer is ‘better than nothing,’” Fliss responded.

This was not helping Conrad’s earlier crisis of self-worth. He said with forced cheeriness, “I can take a hint. I’ll leave.”

“I have to give you credit for that,” Fliss said. “I assumed you were the type to try even harder if I said no.”

Conrad frowned. “Was this not a no?”

Fliss sat on the swiveling chair bolted to the floor in front of the control panel. “What do you do, Conrad?”

Conrad leaned against the edge of the control panel. He was slightly confused, but he recognized a second chance when he saw it. “Nothing that would impress you,” he admitted.

She shook her head. “Don’t impress me. Talk to me.”

That shouldn’t have caused Conrad to mentally lose his footing like it did.

He studied Fliss as he said, “I don’t do anything. I’m a complete freeloader at an age where other people are raising teenagers.”

“The way your sister talked to me when booking this trip, it sounds like your family is extremely well off.”

Conrad was briefly worried that meant Julia had insulted the entire company Fliss worked for.

“I mean,” Conrad said, unsure of how to answer the question of money without being gauche.

“You have every opportunity to do something you consider worthwhile. Why don’t you?” Fliss said, and Conrad had never felt more gratitude than when Fliss’ tone wasn’t judgmental.

Conrad didn’t know how to answer. He wasn’t really the introspective type. “I guess, I tried at some point. But I wasn’t good at what I was expected to be good at. And I didn’t try other things because I was kind of content having fun instead. And now…it feels like it’s too late to find a passion, or pick a career, or…” He trailed off.

“But you’re unhappy,” Fliss accused. 

“I guess I just feel…like I’m stagnating,” Conrad admitted.

The conversation was getting deeper than Conrad had expected, but maybe that’s just what happened in the middle of the ocean between strangers. He had given up the idea that he was going to sleep with Fliss. Not with the veneer of confident party boy slaughtered like it had been.

“I know what you mean,” Fliss said, catching Conrad off-guard. “I do the same thing over and over and never come out on top.”

“You own this ship, don’t you?” Conrad asked.

“And the debt that comes with it.”

“Ah,” Conrad said, like he understood being in debt. “But, do you enjoy--?” He gestured vaguely.

“The ocean?” Fliss asked. “It’s the only thing in my life that I like.”

Conrad nodded. He wondered what he liked in his own life. Now that he was here, away from everything, he missed none of it.

Brad interrupted the moment, shouting from the deck: “They’re surfacing!”

Conrad and Fliss shared a look—an acknowledgement that the conversation didn’t have to be over, but it wasn’t going to be continued in front of the others—and then made their way to the back of the boat.


	2. Chapter 2

Alex and Julia popped out of the water a bit of a distance away.

“How was it?” Conrad shouted.

“Fantastic!” Julia shouted back. She continued as she swam closer, “It was definitely a military plane, but the bomb racks were holding lifeboats.”

Conrad saw out of the corner of his eye Fliss’ lips press into a hard line.

Julia and Alex boarded the boat.

“I was watching the camera the entire time,” Brad said eagerly. “Do you have that bullet?”

Julia pulled something triumphantly from a pocket of her vest and handed it to Brad. “I do.” She gave him a giddy, indulgent smile.

“A what?” Fliss demanded. “You took something?”

“Nothing big, don’t panic,” Julia admonished.

“Although,” Alex said, like he was prompting Julia.

She sighed. “The cockpit fell apart.”

“How?” Fliss radiated anger.

Julia walked past. “I need to change,” she said by way of justifying leaving in the middle of the conversation.

“Did something cause it to fall apart?” Fliss insisted.

Julia stopped. “It was full of bullet holes and it’s been there for like seventy years. It’s just fucking fragile.”

“I told you to be careful.”

Julia spun to face them. “And we were.”

“You’re taking souvenirs.”

Julia sighed again. “Nothing anyone would miss.”

Fliss frowned. “You have more?”

Julia crossed her arms. “We found a piece of paper with coordinates on it.”

“And you took it?” Conrad asked, baffled. It sounded worthless.

Julia pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to Conrad. He set his beer at his feet to examine it. The paper itself was thick and almost waxy, clearly made to last and the only reason it hadn’t dissolved by now. Though it wasn’t in great condition by any means.

It seemed to just be a printed map with coordinates handwritten on it, and beneath that, underlined, were the words: MANCHURIAN GOLD.

Fliss read over Conrad’s shoulder and looked sick. She backed away from him and addressed the whole group.

“No,” she said.

Julia laughed. “Oh, come on.”

“You don’t even know what we’re asking,” Alex said.

Fliss gestured angrily to the paper. “You want me to bring you there. And I _will not_.”

“Why not?” Brad asked, still holding his bullet.

“Because you already didn’t respect this site, you won’t respect another.”

Julia rolled her eyes. “Fine. How much?”

“How much _what_?” Fliss ground out. She clearly knew what Julia was offering, she just wanted to Julia say it.

“How much _money_?” Julia clarified with a tone of talking to someone particularly stupid. “We’re not paying you enough?”

Fliss visibly pulled herself together. “You are paying me the fee my company set.” She paused. “I don’t even know why I try explaining this to you. Money for you is just nonsense numbers you throw around to get what you want. No matter how much you shove at other people, you can always go home and eat.”

When Julia responded, her voice was softer, sugar-sweet, “If you have trouble eating, then finding some gold would be a big help. We’ll pay you more for the trip, and you get a cut of the treasure.”

“Julia,” Conrad warned. He shook his head when she glanced at him.

Julia clearly took that as a betrayal and snatched the paper back from him.

“There is no treasure,” Fliss said.

“You don’t know that,” Alex countered. 

“It doesn’t say treasure, it says Manchurian gold,” Fliss said.

“I don’t care what era it’s from,” Julia said. “Gold is gold. We should try to find it.”

Conrad was blindsided by Julia’s remark, but Fliss recovered well.

“Do you even plan to call in this wreck?” She gestured to the water to indicate the plane.

Julia huffed. “You can do that, since you’re so keen to have it taken from us.”

“It’s a war grave,” Fliss said, taking a step toward Julia. “It’s not _ours_.”

“They’re dead, I guarantee they do not care if we explore it,” Julia said, stepping closer in return.

Conrad looked at Alex, but he didn’t seem to be intervening.

“Julia,” Conrad snapped, gathering some fortitude. “Stop being childish.”

“_Childish_?” Julia nearly shrieked. She looked him in the eyes. “Fuck you.”

She turned and went below deck.

“Did you need to do that, man?” Alex asked Conrad from the sidelines where he had stood the entire time.

“You weren’t stopping her,” Conrad responded.

“No one can stop her,” Alex said.

“Why can’t you all drop it?” Conrad asked, rounding on Alex. “If Fliss doesn’t want to take you on an illegal treasure hunt, find someone else.”

“Now you care about the rules? Why? You think the government needs the gold? That’s who port authority reports to.”

Conrad sputtered. “You think Julia needs the gold? This isn’t about the rules; it’s about respect.”

“Oh, respect?” Alex scoffed. “Is that what you’re doing to Fliss? You’re respecting her? You’re respecting her ass every time she turns around?”

Conrad felt his neck and ears heat up in shame.

Before Conrad could say anything else, Alex left, going below deck.

There was a long, painful silence as none of the three of them that remained moved.

“Walk away, Brad,” Fliss demanded, voice low.

Brad did, and quickly, joining the others below deck.

“I don’t—” Conrad said, tripping over himself to apologize, or explain.

“It’s fine,” Fliss said. She wasn’t looking at him.

“It’s not,” he insisted.

“I ogle your ass, too,” Fliss said, but her tone was flat.

Conrad thought the situation was probably more complicated than that, but he decided to take the obvious olive branch.

Fliss walked into the cabin and Conrad let her go.

That night, while the others were asleep, Conrad sat on a chair bolted to the deck of the boat. Unlike the benches fitted beneath the railing, this chair faced outward. Conrad sat, and stared at the dark surface of the ocean, and drank.

Fliss walked out from below deck, only getting Conrad’s attention when she was right next to him.

“Can’t sleep?” he asked.

“I’m the captain,” she said. “I don’t sleep until everyone else does.”

“Why?”

“So no one does something stupid.” She nodded her head at the water.

“Oh, no,” Conrad was quick to say. He laughed. “It’s not—I’m not going _that_ far.”

“You were out here and not knocking at my door, so I assumed something was wrong.”

Conrad noticed she was only half joking.

_You have plenty to offer_, Conrad reminded himself, though he couldn’t name anything in particular at the moment. _Charm_, he finally settled on, even if he had to admit plenty of people viewed his charm as abrasiveness. _Money_, he thought desperately. _You have money to offer. At the very least, people will put up with a lot for money._

“We talked about doing the same thing over and over and still being unhappy,” Conrad tried to explain. “I was thinking about the soldiers down there.” He glanced at the water now. “And I know I couldn’t be them. I’m not brave enough to strap into a plane and fight anyone. I can’t even fight my sister. I just—I guess I’m trying to change.”

Fliss was silent for a moment. “Respect soldiers, sure, but keep in mind they’re often very young people who were tricked or exploited into dying the way they did. Cannon fodder. That’s not to say they aren’t courageous. Just don’t idolize their lives. But it’s all the more reason to be respectful of their graves.”

She turned to face Conrad. “Do not look for this gold. You don’t know what those coordinates lead to.”

“There might not even be anything there. I’m not above letting Julia go on a goose chase. As long as she follows the rules and anyone she takes with her actually wants to be there.” 

“What if there is something?”

Conrad let out a humorless laugh. “I think I can live without it.”

“That’s not what I meant. Those coordinates aren’t far from here. It’s probably a war grave like this plane. Just leave it alone.”

“There has to have been pirates or something at some point.”

Fliss stepped in front of Conrad and grabbed both of his forearms, a startlingly firm grip that sobered Conrad immediately.

She said, “Conrad. Do not let this happen. Julia won’t follow any laws and you know it. Everything you bring back from a grave like this has an essence. You’re surfacing ghosts. And some of those ghosts are dangerous.”

Conrad looked between Fliss’ face and her hands on his arms. “Ok,” he said, trying to assure her but not entirely sure what of. “How did you plan to stop her?”

“Take the coordinates.”

Conrad’s heart leapt into his throat. “Absolutely not. Do you know how angry Julia would be if that vanished? She’d know it was one of us.”

“What will she do besides be angry?”

“Make you lose your job, probably.”

“I don’t care.”

Conrad frowned. Maybe he wasn’t respectful enough of the past or the dead, but he did not completely understand Fliss’ determination to stop them from going to those coordinates.

Nevertheless, he said, “I can talk her into not making you sail us there. When we get back to shore, I can take the paper.”

Fliss shook her head. “Tonight.”

“I can’t. It’s most likely in her room. She or Alex would definitely wake up.”

“Do you know where the paper is exactly?”

“_No_,” Conrad said. “And don’t go looking for it yourself.”

Fliss took her hands away, looking apologetic. “I’m not going to.”

“I’m on your side,” Conrad said.

“I know,” Fliss said. “I’ll remember that.”

Before Conrad could ask what she meant, Fliss ran her hands up his thighs. Conrad sucked in a startled breath.

“Not good?” Fliss asked.

“No—definitely good,” Conrad was quick to tell her. “Just unexpected.”

Fliss laughed and stepped to stand in between his knees. She put a hand under his shirt, splaying her fingers over his stomach. Her other hand held the back of the chair next to his head. She brought herself forward on her toes until their faces nearly touched. 

“You move fast,” Conrad commented, breathless from the sudden turn of events.

Fliss tilted her head slightly, amused. “You can tell me to slow down.”

Conrad grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her lips to his. He could feel her smiling against him as they kissed. Fliss moved her hand higher under his shirt. Her other hand returned to his thigh.

Conrad had just worked up the courage to put his hands around her waist when the boat jostled suddenly, jarring them apart.

Fliss looked rueful. “We should call it a night. I think a storm is headed to us.”

“A night like--?” Conrad asked.

“Like sleeping,” Fliss answered, tone firm.

Conrad raised his hands, showing no hard feelings. “I understand. You’re technically working--”

“Conrad,” she stopped him. “Good night.”

Something in her tone gave Conrad pause, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

Nevertheless, Conrad obediently headed to sleep. He shared a room with Brad; a small space that only fit two beds because they were stacked liked bunkbeds.

Just as Conrad had drifted off, a hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him out of bed, far too rough to be anyone friendly. Before his panic could set in, Conrad grabbed a beer bottle from next to him on the floor and smashed it across the face of his attacker.

They recoiled in pain and Conrad tried to get a look at what he was up against. A surprisingly young man, wearing a black cloak.

The man pulled a knife and pressed the tip to Conrad’s neck.

Conrad’s hands were zip tied together and he was led out of the room and onto the deck of the ship. It was still dark out.

Conrad was forced to his knees next to Julia, Alex, and Brad, also zip tied and kneeling and in their sleep clothes. They all shared a glance.

The cloaked man who had subdued Conrad joined two other men in cloaks nearby. Another person stepped out from the edge of the ship.

It was Fliss. Her small jean shorts had been replaced with much more functional cargo shorts and she held a large knife.

Conrad forced down his irrational feeling of betrayal. He barely knew her.

“What do you want?” Julia demanded. Somehow managing an indignant tone instead of scared, which is where Conrad was at.

Fliss surveyed them. “I want those coordinates you found earlier.”

The lack of sleep did not help Conrad keep up. It would be just their luck to stumble upon fabled treasure at the same time their captain was a pirate.

“It’s easy,” Fliss said. “Just tell me where the paper is and I will let you go.”

One of the cloaked men—an older man, with a blind eye—spoke up in French, something that sounded like an argument. Fliss responded in French, a retort that clearly shut the man down.

“The hell you’ll let us live,” Alex said.

“Better to give cooperation a try than risking it,” Fliss said.

“Go fuck yourself,” Julia said.

Fliss seemed less impressed with Julia’s bravery than Conrad had been.

Fliss nodded at one of the cloaked men. Not the one that had grabbed Conrad. That one was bleeding from the forehead, Conrad noticed with pride.

Before Conrad could be too happy with himself, the third cloaked man grabbed him and dragged him to his feet.

“Wait!” shouted Conrad. “Please—wait! No!”

The man dragged him downstairs and into the captain’s bedroom. He spun Conrad to face away and grabbed his arm to keep him in place.

“Wait, wait, wait--” Conrad begged. He didn’t like not being able to see what was going to happen. He expected the barrel of a gun to meet the back of his head.

But instead, the man cut the zip tie and pushed Conrad further into the room. As Conrad stumbled to get his footing, the man left and closed the door behind him.

Conrad rushed to the door. As he stepped in front of it, it opened again, revealing Fliss.


End file.
